“Well, I suppose I mustn’t be a bear, and say no.” Dr. Willett wheeled round upon Oscar. “Yes, I’ve no objection; only take good care of the little girls. A pleasant day to you.” The busy physician was gone.
Now a tempest of preparation swept through the house for a few minutes; then Mrs. Grant stood on the steps at the front door to watch them off. Dick touched up old Rameses, and drove along the lane with a flourish. Picking up the midges at the Owl’s Nest gates, with many injunctions from Rance to take good care of her charges, they made the best of their way [p124] onward, not exactly as the crow flies, but taking all the short cuts adventurous wheels could roll over: the more jolts and bumps the more the merriment; Jenny driving, the boys on foot. So, without hitch or hindrance, the sea was reached.
A glorious sight it was: not smooth, calm, and still, but with a beautiful ripple breaking over it, with glad little waves running here and there—just the mood to please the children. They all kept to the boundary-line of shore; there was to be no boating, no bathing: the boys had bound themselves by promise to Mrs. Grant that there were to be no seaside pranks or dangerous doings.
“No; no one shall come to a watery grave or an untimely end, if I can help it—I promise that:” these were Dick’s last words to the housekeeper, giving Rameses the touch which set him off with a bolt. So now he bade the little girls to pick up shells, look out for mermaids, and disport themselves in harmless lady-like fashion, while he and Oscar went here and there, scaled heights, and took a glance seaward from the height of the Swallow’s Cliff.
[p125]
“But first we’ll consult the luncheon hamper,” suggested he: which they did; and a very neat spread it was which the girls laid out for them on the unfrequented beach. This over, with a lifting of the hat, and “Good-bye for the present,” from Dick, and “Mind, Inna, the midges don’t get into mischief,” from Oscar, the two went straying away; and the girls, having cleared away luncheon, began to enjoy themselves. Such pretty shells they picked, such beautiful sprays of seaweed, and, oh, how the waves curled and ran races together! Once and again they saw a distant ship sail past, and Inna thought of the happy days when her father and mother would come sailing home in a ship like that. Then they all ran races and sat in the sun, while Jenny sang one of Dick’s songs, with the refrain—
“Three cheers for the briny-ho!”
and Inna sang one of Mrs. Grant’s, with this chorus—
“Ho-ho! for the fisherman’s child to-night,
Ho-ho! for the fisherman’s wife;
Ho-ho! for the fisherman’s bark to-night,